This might sound stoopid, but is there any program that would let me access and run my linux partition from inside Windows (like Virtual PC, but without emulation).

I am sick of having to reboot back and forth.

VMWare should do what you want (http://www.vmware.com/), but it's a bit expensive IMHO.

VMWare
Win4Lin
Wine
WineX
Bochs
Dosemu (You can run windows 3.1 )

Search the forums for your answers

I dont want Windows inside Linux, I want Linux inside Windows. And $300 for VMware, well thats out of the question, unless someone can lend me $290.

I used Cygwin while I was still tethered to windows. I believe you could access your partitions, but I am unsure if you could run any programs.

I believe contrasutra's got a dualboot linux/windows atm
Afaik there's no program which lets you load ur unix partition in windows, vmware creates a file which it loads as vitual os, it cant run or access ur linux partition. U still have to reinstall and its got its own quirks.

I am interested however if someone knows of any software that does load/run the linux partition inside windows.

Btw has anyone tried topologi-linux??
http://topologi-linux.sf.net/
Would like to get some opinions on it.

As far as actually running programs from one in the other, previous posts mention the hoops you will need to jump through. Really, they are two different operating systems and being able to run programs from the other should be considered unusual (and requires some sort of emulator).
As far as viewing files, depending on what filesystems, and which OS versions you are running, that should be possible, though not necessarily easy.
Linux is able to read and write to any type of FAT partition. Linux can read from an NTFS partition. I have seen references to applications that allow Windows to read a Linux ext2 partition (would guess that includes ext3). Not so sure about Reiser.
If you are going to run a dual/multi boot, rebooting sometimes is a fact of life. Getting clear in your mind what tasks need to be performed on which OS and how important it is to reboot right away will help cut down on frequency some, if you can get a good method for transfering files going.
What specific tasks or programs require rebooting back and forth?
Perhaps the folks here would have suggestions about that....

You don't have to pay for VMware. You can try it for 30 days. If you like it, then you can chuck out 300 US dollars.

I didn't have any problems with VMware and I'm using Linux as my host. I can see for those that like to upgrade their kernel. This makes VMware not work because it doesn't have any modules for newer version of kernels.

2damncommon, ext3 or Reiser is based on ext2. You should know that already. When I viewed my ext3 or even Reiser parititions in windows, it worked fine with a program. I think it was explore2fs or something like that.

contrasutra, if you have borland free compiler or another C compiler that you prefer. You can compile Bochs and then install LINUX in Bochs. Bochs is just like VMware but it is an emulator. If you are running Windows XP, Bochs will run slow. Windows XP hogs the most resources than earlier Windows OS. Memory manufactures just loves users that uses Windows XP.

You can install Linux inside Windows.

I used to do it when I didn't know what I was doing. This was a while ago though. It would reside in a directory of choice and you would boot it from an icon of choice on the desktop. You couldn't share apps or anything like that. Linux was just installed on the same partition and you could float through it from windows explorer.

Gimme a minute to find how I did it.

I think it was the .....

???
ext3, yes. But I am not familar enough to know if ext2 access implies complete ext3 access.
I think Reiser is completely different. Am I wrong?

Hi,

To browse your linux partitions from window$ you can use explore2fs. Its freely available at
http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm
Good luck!

Greg

explore2fs looks like an option
i would like to know if i can keep my mp3's on and avi's on my linux partition, but still be able to read them from windows
is that possible with explore2fs????
thanx

-NEF

Yes, you can keep your files on your linux partition but when you want to open a file you first have to copy it unto your windows partition. But why would you use windows to use those files? You can do everything in windows!!!

Greg

I think you meant: "You can do everything in Linux"

Otherwise this doesn't make sense at all

sure, i can do everything in linux
still i spend a lot of time on windows, since i havent found yet a good replacement for imesh or kazaa